Thursday, January 13, 2011

Chocolate and Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

This coffee cake was a real delight to have over the weekend - it was moist, beautiful and the swirl gave it that something special you look for in a weekend treat. When I first moved to North America and heard about coffee cakes, I was disappointed to find that they didn't taste like coffee at all. Cutting a piece and enjoying it with a warm cup of coffee brings the coffee flavor into the cake though and makes it just about the perfect balance of flavors. I've tasted a lot of coffee through the years and visited a lot, a lot of coffee shops while traveling. My favourite to date has to be Blue Bottle in San Francisco- their cold brewed coffee has to be the best I've ever had. Lately, however, some coffee shops have started taking themselves too seriously and that can take away from the experience of relaxing and enjoying one of the best drinks there is. I greatly value a warm and cozy ambiance when getting an afternoon cup of coffee but have found that many coffee shops have, sadly, become pretentious and have ended up making coffee seem inaccessible and and an art not everyone can understand.

On a recent trip to New York, I was happy I found Stumptwon Coffee Roasters at the Ace Hotel. This place is worth the trip if only for the eclectic decor of the hotel itself- it's filled with worn in furniture, low lights and different nooks and crannies to comfortably sit in. The cappuccino I had there was the smoothest and frothiest coffee I've had. It really was. They also had velvety iced coffee and fleur de sel chocolate bars. We also sampled some of the treats there and their pretzel-like bread filled with ham, sharp cheese and mustard was absolutely amazing. I will definitely be making my way back to the Ace Hotel when I go to New York next. Chocolate and Cinnamon Swirl Coffee CakeAdapted from Baked, I made the cake in a round cake pan instead

Crumb Topping:Put the flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add the hazelnuts and pulse until they are finely chopped and incorporated. Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand. Cover and refrigerate.

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:Mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Sour Cream Cake:Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl as needed.Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and beating only until each addition is just incorporated. Do not overmix.Pour one third of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering the entire surface of the batter. Spoon half of remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with remaining swirl mixture, then the remaining batter, and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.Bake in the center of the oven for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Serves 16.

I am a recent coffee convert but still completely agree about the ambiance meaning so much in a coffee shop! That cake is gorgeous, I love how you layered it to make it tall instead of the standard single layer!

I've tried some of the recipes from the gentleman that wrote this book and I absolutely loved them. This coffee cake looks amazing. There was a write up in the Food and Travel magazine (November issue) on these gentleman, great story about their journey. Looking forward to purchasing the cookbook.

I also understand what you mean by expecting coffee cake to taste like coffee... I had the same belief when I came to the USA too. Still, I guess once we taste how tasty it is, we quickly get over the disappointment, right?

Yummy! This cake looks delicious! You should consider entering it into Recipe4Living's 5th Birthday Recipe Contest! The site is turning 5 years old, and we're giving away a Scharffen Berger gift basket to the top birthday cake that's submitted!

Oh i soo want the cake and now:-)Sooo pretty a cake and delightful too !And an absolutely wonderful blog!UR pics are crystal clear and colors perfect!Stunning!I know its u , but would love to know what cam u use:-))Which Baked is this adaptd from?Thannxx a ton and wodnerful day!

THis sounds delicious, I love coffee cake!! I just made a similar kind of cake with chocolate chips, sugar, cinnamon, and pecans in the middle of a pound cake recipe....it came out great, will be posting the recipe soon!! Or try this Nutella loaf!!http://feedyoursister.blogspot.com/2011/01/nutella-pound-cake.html

Hi again, so I finally got around to making this cake, and I was so excited, but now I'm sad...i used a loaf pan bc I didn't have a round pan, and it completely overflowed all over the place, now no crumble topping is left on top of the cake! Boo! However, I tasted the fallen cake pieces and it's delicious.

I'm interested to know how high you filled the spring-form pan and how yours didn't overflow like mine?!?!

Also the recipe makes a huge amount of, crumble and batter, I'd say definitely enough to bake two loaves if I fill it half way up and then I probably wouldn't get overflow, right?